Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The Reeducation of Cherry Truong

Generally speaking, the Vietnamese families who came to the
United States at the close of the tragic war in that country have, as a group,
done well here. Their work ethic and
devotion to education meant that most of them and their children would achieve
financial security in remarkably short order.
Easily overlooked, however, is what it was like for whole families forced
to leave behind everything but what they could carry with them. Aimee Phan’s The Reeducation of Cherry Truong tells exactly what it was like for
two of those families.

Spanning three generations and three countries (Vietnam,
France, and the United States), The
Reeducation of Cherry Truong is the story of interrelated families forever
split because of a decision made by one man.
Cherry (pronounced like the fruit) Truong, having grown up in Little
Saigon, California, does not know what happened all those years ago, but her
efforts to convince her brother to return to California will finally expose her
family’s secrets. Under the leadership
of Cherry’s maternal grandmother, Cherry and her cousins are living quite
comfortably in California and have promising futures. Now, however, her grandmother worries that
some of her weaker grandchildren are looking for shortcuts to the easy life.

Things have not gone quite as well in Paris for Cherry’s
paternal grandparents and her uncles but, there too, her cousins are preparing
themselves for what they hope will be brighter futures. Sadly, her grandfather is suffering from
Alzheimer’s now, one of her aunts is unstable, and her grandmother has
discovered a family secret on her own. After
visits to Paris and Vietnam, Cherry Truong’s reeducation will be done and she
will understand the full impact of the choice her grandfather made all those
years ago.

Aimee Phan

The Reeducation of
Cherry Truong is about secrets and the destruction they can cause, but
along the way, it offers genuine insights into family life in Vietnam both
during and after the war. Too, despite
the fact that few of the book’s characters are especially likable, it is
difficult not to admire what the two families achieve for their children. Particularly touching is the ever-widening
generational gap that becomes obvious as the first generation immigrants
struggle to maintain the old ways that seem less and less important to each
succeeding generation.

Readers should, from the beginning, refer to the two family
trees offered at the beginning of the book.
Ms. Phan uses a series of old letters and flashbacks to several
different points in time (and to all three countries mentioned earlier) to tell
her story. Paying attention up front to
the various relationships will make it all much easier to keep track of - and
will provide the reader with a much more rewarding experience.

Kathleen, I think what I liked most about the book is how clearly it shows the inevitable conflict between the immigrant-generation and the first generation of children born in the U.S. The elders usually want to hold on to their cultural tradition, the youngsters want to fit in with their peers, and conflict causes pain and friction for both generations. That's the real theme of the book.

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Favorite Quote of the Moment

"Within arm's reach were so many sublime minds - she could awaken them off the shelf (no matter the hour, they were more alert than she), bid them start, and encounter a soul fitted with perceptions like hers, only sharper. - Tooly of The Rise & Fall of Great Powers, page 44, as she opens the door of her bookshop in the middle of the night